Serving as ambassador to China will be the challenge of Terry Branstad’s life, foreign policy experts and a former envoy said — at times frustrating and demoralizing, always difficult, but also endlessly fascinating and potentially consequential on a worldwide stage.

Once he’s confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Iowa's six-term governor will become the chief messenger between the leaders of the largest economies, and the largest militaries, in the world. He'll oversee a vast diplomatic operation amid a tense time in U.S.-China relations, leading talks on matters ranging from trade practices to island building to nuclear proliferation.

“The governor and his family are stepping into the most complex and important relationship of the 21st century,” said Jon Huntsman, the former Republican governor from Utah who was ambassador to China from 2009 to 2011.

The Des Moines Register interviewed Huntsman and a half-dozen other experts on U.S.-China relations about the nature of the ambassador's role and the specific issues Branstad will face when he arrives in Beijing. Everyone described the job as endlessly challenging but equally rewarding, and a fitting capstone to the political career of the longest-serving governor in American history.

Huntsman said he spoke with Branstad before then-President-elect Donald Trump formally offered Branstad the job — and strongly encouraged him to seize the opportunity if he could.

“He will have to draw on everything he’s learned in his professional career, everything he’s experienced as a governor and apply those skills to something that is completely unique and different in his life,” said Huntsman, who reportedly has been offered the ambassadorship to Russia. “It’s the most interesting job in modern-day diplomacy because the stakes are so high.”

In addition to Huntsman, a Branstad spokesman said the governor has spoken with immediate past Ambassador Max Baucus and former Ambassador Gary Locke. He has submitted voluminous paperwork associated with his nomination, but as of yet no Senate confirmation hearings have been scheduled.

Branstad, 70, has declined to give extensive interviews on his nomination, saying he’s been advised not to discuss the role and his preparations for it ahead of the hearings. In his last public statement on the matter, he said he hoped to be confirmed by the end of April.

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Gov. Terry Branstad, right, and China's then-Vice President Xi Jinping toasted their friendship at a dinner during Xi's visit to Iowa in February 2012. Xi has since become his country's top leader. Register file photo

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Gov. Terry Branstad in 2015 display a 1985 photo that was taken when Xi was part of a Chinese delegation visiting the Iowa governor’s office in Des Moines. Branstad was serving his first term as governor at the time. Special to the Register

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Foreign Minister Wang Yi during a meeting at the Great Hall of the People on April 15, 2013 in Beijing, China. Walker is in China to lead his first trade mission overseas and hopes to build a relationship with China to increase both imports and exports in the future. He along with other American governors will attend a National Governor's Association meeting. Getty Images

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‘A very, very difficult job’

So what will Branstad’s role actually be in the vast and crucial relationship between the world’s superpowers?

During a visit to Des Moines last December, Trump predicted Iowa's Republican governor would live “like a king” at the embassy in Beijing. But experts on the U.S.-China relationship say the pomp and circumstance surrounding the post belies duties that can be frustrating and limiting — particularly for someone accustomed to being the boss.

“He is walking into a very, very difficult job. The ambassador is not a policymaker, he’s a message carrier,” said James McGregor, the China chairman for Apco, an international business consultancy. “At the end of the day, the decisions on what he says will be made back at the White House and the State Department.”

That role could be particularly fraught under Trump, who made China a punching bag on the campaign trail last year. Trump accused the country of stealing American jobs and manipulating its currency to gain unfair trade advantages, and has suggested slapping a 45 percent tariff on Chinese imports.

Trump has also shown little interest in the formalities of international diplomacy, potentially making Branstad’s job harder. Before Trump took office, he took a phone call from the president of Taiwan and suggested longstanding U.S. recognition of China's territorial claims to the island could be up for negotiation. (He later backtracked in a call with Chinese President Xi Jinping.) Amid reports in January about North Korea developing missiles capable of reaching the U.S., Trump tweeted bluntly, "It won't happen!"

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“Just the ability of the current president to have a bad morning and tweet something that will enrage another country means Ambassador Branstad is going to have his work cut out for him,” McGregor said.

When complications do arise in the U.S.-China relationship, Branstad will be the focal point for Chinese frustrations, experts said. McGregor predicted that Branstad at some point will face the diplomatic exercise known as a demarche. It begins with a summons to the foreign ministry.

“The ambassador is called in and dressed down in no uncertain terms, often by people who are not that high a level, just to be insulting,” McGregor said. “In past years we’ve had ambassadors called in at 2 or 3 in the morning, just to make their lives miserable.”

“For a man as accomplished as (Branstad) is,” McGregor went on, “he’s going to be surprised at some of the things he’ll have to go through.”

Still, the opportunities for involvement in some of the biggest geopolitical issues of the day are immense. Harry Krejsa, a research associate on Asia-Pacific security for the bipartisan Center for a New American Security think tank, said Branstad is about to become "one of the most important diplomats in the world."

"As the U.S. ambassador, you are the front line of American power and influence in the world. You are the face of American kindness and the warning of American strength," Krejsa said. "I can only imagine the sense of responsibility that comes with that, but also the privilege of having that level of service."

What makes the China-U.S. relationship in particular so important — and the ambassador’s role so critical — Huntsman and other China experts said, is the spillover effect it has across the entire world.

“In every aspect of our relationship there is a global dimension, and because of that the stakes are exceedingly high,” Huntsman said. “This isn’t just an average country-to-country relationship.”

White House contacts will be critical

An immediate and ongoing challenge for Branstad will be to influence, rather than merely carry out, the United States’ policy on China, said John Pomfret, an author and foreign correspondent who lived in China for several years.

That requires building and maintaining relationships with officials in the White House and keeping a grasp on the president’s ear.

“It depends on the personal relationship that the ambassador develops with people on the National Security Council, who generally have been the curators of the relationship,” Pomfret said. “The huge challenge is how to have influence on this relationship when the White House has generally kept this relationship as its own.”

McGregor agreed that wielding influence in Washington, D.C., will be just as important as wielding it in Beijing.

“If he has strong voice back to the administration, he can get them to listen to him about what he sees on the ground and help shape the message that people then carry out,” he said.

McGregor also warned that ambassadors often find themselves “isolated” inside the embassy, bogged down reading cables from the State Department and managing the diplomatic bureaucracy.

“It’ll be up to him to take the initiative and get out and travel and visit people,” McGregor said. “If I was to give him advice, I’d tell him to get out — get out in the provinces, get out in the cities and, because of his agriculture background, get out in the countryside.”

Gubernatorial experience a plus

Several China experts predicted Branstad’s experience as a governor would serve him well.

“It’s a far-flung diplomatic presence,” Huntsman said of the embassy. “You’re managing basically a microcosm of the U.S. government. Every agency and department that you would find in Washington, D.C., is represented in the embassy.”

Debi Durham, the Iowa Economic Development Director who has traveled extensively with Branstad in China, said she’s witnessed the governor’s diplomatic skills and subtle methods of persuasion.

“Gov. Branstad has this incredible ability to be able to interject into the conversation sensitive matters and do it in a way that is not threatening, but respectful,” Durham said. “When there is a trust and there is a respect at that level, I believe he can have any conversation that he needs to have with the leadership of China.”

Gov. Terry Branstad laughs with the company of his granddaughters Bridget Branstad, 7, and Stella Costa, 2, during the celebration of Branstad becoming the longest-serving governor in American history at Iowa State FairgroundsÕ Paul R. Knapp Animal Learning Center, Monday, Dec. 14, 2015. Rachel Mummey/The Register

Gov. Terry Branstad holds his granddaughter Stella Costa with First Lady Chris Branstad on Monday, Dec. 14, 2015, as they celebrate Branstad becoming the longest-serving governor in U.S. history at Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines, Iowa. Rachel Mummey/The Register

Iowa Governor and the longest serving governor in the nation, Terry Branstad speaks to the crowd during an event celebrating the governor on Monday, Dec. 14, 2015 in Des Moines. Kelsey Kremer/The Register

Quality of life considerations

There’s also the quality of life aspect of the job. Huntsman noted Beijing’s notoriously terrible air quality, its “impenetrable” traffic and the constant counter-intelligence (read: spying) that American officials are subjected to in the country.

“They’re very interested in what we’re doing and thinking,” Huntsman said.

To beat the traffic, Huntsman said he took to riding his bike through the city — something former president George H.W. Bush also did when he was the U.S. liaison to China in the 1970s.

Branstad has said little about the preparations he's making either for the job itself or the adjustment to life in the third-largest city in the world. He has suggested that his daughter, son-in-law and two grandchildren will move to Beijing along with him and his wife, although a spokesman said this month that the details of the move have not yet been finalized.

Don’t overestimate old friendships

Much has been made of that relationship, which dates back to the 1980s, when Xi visited Iowa as a provincial official during Branstad’s first tour as governor, and has been strengthened by more recent trade missions.

Xi has referred to Branstad as an “old friend” — a weighty term in Chinese culture that connotes a closeness and willingness to cooperate.

But that’ll take Branstad only so far. Several suggested that Trump’s move to appoint an “old friend” as ambassador sets an encouraging tone for the administration’s interactions with China and signals a desire for a constructive relationship. It gives Branstad a “head start,” Huntsman said, relative to an ambassador without such connections.

“There’s a familiarity there, and they will treat him with respect because of that. He may even have a little more access than your average ambassador,” McGregor said. “But Chinese leaders don’t have foreign friends.”

McGregor, who’s worked in China as a journalist and business consultant for three decades, described the country’s political system as “tough” and “bare-fisted.” Branstad’s “old friend” status could even be used against him.

“When Xi Jinping calls him in and gives a message as an old friend, it’s going to be hard for Branstad to push back against him,” McGregor said. “It could be a bit of a vulnerability if Branstad is not clear on the value or the lack of real value in being an old friend.”

The real value in Branstad’s past interactions with Xi and other officials, Pomfret said, is the perspective they might provide on how the Chinese leadership reacts to issues that arise during his ambassadorship.

“Having had these relationships will give him knowledge on how the Chinese roll, which might help him in the very difficult negotiations that are upcoming on a variety of issues,” he said.

Pomfret, the author of a history of U.S.-China relations since 1776, said that in difficult situations Chinese leaders tend to close off communication.

“Don’t expect that Xi Jinping is going to answer his phone call just because he knew him (in 1985),” Pomfret said. “When the chips are down, the Chinese have a tendency to go into their bunkers, and they won’t answer the phone regardless of who you are.”